Friday, May 8, 2015

Bill’s Harvard

Wednesday saw us touring Harvard. Neither Sharon or I had
ever been there and Ricki knows the place well. Before his death in 2003, her
husband Bill, with whom I was an undergraduate history major at Cal, Berkeley,
taught Civil War history there, and more recently Ricki has worked at the Widener library
finishing his last project.

As a result it was a bittersweet tour for us all, but we got
to see the school as Bill saw it and I got to pay homage to the man who more
than anyone else, pointed me toward the study of history.

So, Harvard:

Really nice image of Ricki and Sharon

John Harvard, note shiny spot on his left foot

The Widener Library

Ricki and Sharon in the Widener

A nice image of the new Renzo Piano addition to the Harvard Museums

The Wertheim collection provides the basis for the permanent exhibition. This ain't the Met, but the man's curatorial eye was amazing.

A Pelikan (above) and a pen box (below)

Memorial Hall. Bill was asked, at one point, to help decide if the memorial to Harvard's Union war dead should expand to Confederates, it was a difficult issue.

Harvard Square, long known to Car Talk fans

Thursday took us from Lincoln, Mass to Nashua, New Hampshire and Barbara and Richard Binder.